Doctoral defence: Ahmet Ilker Topuz “Quantitative and qualitative investigations for muon scattering tomography via GEANT4 simulations: A computational study”

On 29 June at 14:00 Ahmet Ilker Topuz will defend his doctoral thesis “Quantitative and qualitative investigations for muon scattering tomography via GEANT4 simulations: A computational study” for obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.

Supervisors:
Associate Professor Madis Kiisk, University of Tartu
Dr Andrea Giammanco, UC Louvain (Belgium)

Opponent:
Professor Germano Bonomi, Brescia University (Italy)

Summary
Muon tomography is a relatively novel imaging technique that makes use of the free natural flux of muons originating from the interaction of cosmic rays in the atmosphere. The principle behind the muon scattering tomography is to track the propagation of the cosmic ray muons within the target volume through which the incoming muons of a certain energy deviate from their initial trajectories after a series of physical processes predominantly depending on the atomic number, the material density, and the material thickness. In this PhD thesis, our objective is to summarize a number of presentations and publications that are devoted to the computational aspects of muon tomography, the purpose of which is to characterize the target materials such as nuclear materials in diverse applications. We present our outcomes in a quantitative as well as in a qualitative format when/if necessary. First, we attempt to estimate the kinetic energy of the incoming muons by using the deflection angle through the detector layers fabricated from polyvinyl toluene. Secondly, in addition to the derivation of the triangular correlation, we determine the characteristic parameters such as the scattering angle, the muon absorption, and the muon displacement for the bulky nuclear waste barrels as well as the homogenized nuclear waste barrels. Finally, rather than using the vertical muons with either a constant energy or a uniform energy distribution, we try to sophisticate the muon sources by utilizing a restrictive plane and a discretized energy spectrum.